Nuke pioneer dies
Hans Bethe, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who played a key role in the building of the atomic bomb, died on Sunday, aged 98. From 1943 to 1946, Bethe headed the theoretical physics division of the Manhattan Project. He also discovered the 鈥渃arbon cycle鈥� that powers the sun, for which he won the Nobel prize in 1967.
Genome menagerie
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A dozen more species have been given the nod for gene sequencing. The US National Human Genome Research Institute鈥檚 list includes the marmoset, a skate, a sea slug and five insects. Most are pests or disease carriers. The skate was chosen as it belongs to the first group of vertebrates to develop jaws.
Supermagnet
The first of 1232 superconducting magnets was installed on Monday in the circular 27-kilometre tunnel that will house the Large Hadron Collider, the world鈥檚 most powerful particle accelerator. The 35-tonne magnets will steer protons that have been accelerated close to the speed of light. The LHC, being built at the CERN particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, is due to start operating in 2007.
Smoke damage
Pregnant women who smoke risk damaging their baby鈥檚 DNA. The phenomenon, which has long been suspected, was confirmed by a study reported this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (vol 293, p 1212). Compared with non-smoking mothers, researchers found four times as many structural abnormalities in chromosomes from fetal cells when the mother smoked.
Step away from the coral
Harvesting two coral species will become illegal in the US if a 3 March proposal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration succeeds. The move would classify them as threatened. Corals are already depleted by warming, hurricanes and disease.